Jim Cantore, Al Roker decry mass layoffs at NOAA, National Weather Service. 'This is deeply troubling'

Yahoo

28-02-2025

This week President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have axed hundreds more federal jobs. This time the cuts include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The latest round of layoffs at federal agencies saw 880 employees around the country dismissed on Thursday, with fears that even more could receive a layoff letter on Friday. It is just the latest part of Trump's plan to downsize the federal workforce.
Andrew Rosenberg, a marine scientist who is co-editor of the SciLight newsletter on Substack and a former deputy director of NOAA's Fisheries Service, reported that NOAA officials were told to fire 'everyone on probationary status,' according to USA TODAY.
Social media posts sprang up from different National Weather Service groups across the country saying goodbye to the people who were part of the layoffs.
But some bigger names in the weather community are decrying the mass layoffs of employees who monitor hurricanes and issue severe weather alerts for communities across the nation. Al Roker and Jim Cantore both have something to say about it.
"This is deeply troubling. NWS forecasters don't just come in and put a forecast together. They make processes for all forecasters so much better," wrote Cantore on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Roker and Cantore, both well-known for their weather reporting, have spent decades bringing the world the latest news when it comes to weather, and part of their reporting ― along with hundreds of other media networks ― comes from the resources available through NOAA and the weather service.
Here's a look at what is happening and what these layoffs could mean.
NOAA employees do everything from monitor weather conditions to climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration and supporting marine commerce. The agencies have a long list of areas that they cover. Including distributing potentially life-saving reports through monitoring and forecasting the nation's most violent storms, daily weather and long-term climate.
Beyond that, employees have broad scientific duties that include collecting, storing and sharing data, maintaining a research fleet of satellites, ships and aircraft, as well as managing the nation's ocean and marine species and saltwater fishing.
We are already starting to see the effect this reduction in staff is having in communication.
Most of the regional weather service stations and NOAA offices have a significant presence on social media sites like Facebook and X, but the layoffs have already hit some agencies' abilities to communicate what is happening and discuss their research.
"Due to a reduction in staff, NOAA GLERL's communications services will be taking an indefinite hiatus. Please follow @ciglr_um to stay updated on GLERL and CIGLR's collective Great Lakes science," read a post from NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
With tornado season coming up quickly for the plains and many states in the South and hurricane season starting right after that, the question remains of how these layoffs could and will affect the distribution of information when severe and deadly weather strikes.
Roker went in-depth on a social post on X, explaining what the NOAA does and how work from meteorologists within the agency are so important.
"Why it matters: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is responsible for providing weather watches and warnings, monitoring and studying Earth's climate, as well as operating weather satellites and protecting marine life," Roker wrote in his post. "NOAA's missions require staff to work around the clock to monitor dangerous weather, earthquakes that could cause tsunamis, and other hazards. In recent weeks, NOAA's National Weather Service has issued warnings for deadly flooding in Kentucky, heavy snow, frigid temperatures and other hazards across the country."
None of the National Weather Service stations that provide weather information for Tennessee have posted about the effects the layoffs have had on them, if any.
The Tennessean reached out to the National Weather Service office in Nashville on Friday for comment, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
NOAA has 12,000 staff members. Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, confirmed that about 880 employees were being terminated, which is about 7% of the agency's staff members, according to reports from USA TODAY.
These employees now join tens of thousands of other federal workers who have been laid off in the last five weeks since Trump took office.
Before the mass layoffs started, a missive was sent to all federal employees about buyouts. Approximately 75,000 federal employees took buyouts. Those that didn't take the buyouts, were in the line of fire of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and the mass layoff plan by the Trump administration.
There has not been a specific tally of how many federal employees have been laid off in recent weeks, but reports from USA TODAY estimate the total may have surpassed 100,000.
Here are agencies that have been affected by the mass layoffs of probationary employees.
Department of Defense
NOAA
Department of the Interior: National Park Service
Internal Revenue Service
Department of Homeland Security: TSA
Federal Aviation Administration
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Department of Education
Department of Energy
Department of Health and Human Services: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health
Department of Veterans Affairs
Environmental Protection Agency
General Services Administration
Office of Personnel Management
Small Business Administration
U.S. Forest Service
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
USA TODAY contributed to this report
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jim Cantore, Al Roker decry layoffs at NOAA, national weather service